By Tom Flannery
Every election year, a great deal of time and attention is given – at least by the New Media – to the support Democratic politicians receive from the Hollywood community, in terms of finances (political donations run far higher for Dems than Republicans) as well as official endorsements and the sweat equity that goes with them (personal appearances on behalf of the candidates and so on).
But the biggest contribution Hollywood makes in each political cycle has nothing to do with money or marketing. It has to do with production – that is, the films and television programs produced, often by A-list talent, which serve the sole purpose of promoting Democratic candidates or elected officials and the liberal causes they champion.
No less a Hollywood power player than Tom Hanks is a central figure in two such recently released propaganda pieces designed to sway the 2012 election. He is producer of the HBO movie “Game Change,” and he narrates the pro-Obama documentary “The Road We’ve Traveled.”
Both of these offerings are patently dishonest, weaving false narratives and twisting facts to create a skewed “reality” that favors Democrats (principally in these cases, President Obama) and slanders Republicans. But that’s not at all surprising. In fact, it’s par for the course when it comes to Hollywood’s political (and always politically motivated) fare.
“Game Change,” which seeks to exonerate John McCain’s campaign chief Steve Schmidt of his culpability in the collapse of McCain’s 2008 presidential run, is little more than a liberal’s fantasy.
Sarah Palin is, of course, made to be the scapegoat. She is seen as conniving, dumb and totally unprepared for the rigors of the campaign trail (much less the presidency!). McCain is reduced to the role of a foul-mouthed fool, and Republicans are depicted as hateful, ignorant and racist. When they hear Obama’s name mentioned, they immediately start screaming “He’s a Muslim!” and “Send him back to Africa!”
The film’s high point, to hear liberals tell it, is when Palin experiences a full-fledged mental breakdown as she is preparing for her debate with Joe Biden. The only problem is that it never happened. A slew of first-hand eyewitnesses have said so, and a photograph from the day in question – Sept. 27, 2008 – shows Sarah actively and alertly prepping for the debate at a podium. Stacy Drake of Big Hollywood, citing the photo, observes: “Does this look like a woman who spent the better part of the day ‘slipping into catatonic stupors’?”
The documentary is just as deceptive. As with the Obama presidency itself, it is a Bush-blaming venture from the very start – with Hanks smugly asking in the opening if Americans are too blinded by the day’s headlines to even remember how bad things were in 2008 when Obama assumed office. Strangely enough, Hanks then goes on to lionize Obama as someone who, despite being saddled with ostensibly insurmountable problems, “would not dwell in blame.”
Really?
What planet has Hanks and the other makers of this mockumentary been living on these past three-plus years? All Obama’s been doing the whole time is dwelling in blame! As does the film itself.
Never mind that this theme directly contradicts what Obama himself said about the gravity of the situation back in 2008 – namely, that if he didn’t get the economy turned around in three years, he would be “a one-term proposition.”
It is only as we reached and then passed the three-year mark that he and his acolytes have claimed, quite falsely, that he always said it would take two terms, and possibly two presidents, to undo all of the Bush-era damage. Well, he’s right about one thing – it will take another president. Someone other than him.
So to answer Hanks’ question, this is what we should remember, Obama’s own words and promises in 2008 when he was campaigning for office and then, in 2009, when he was starting his presidency. We should be guided by objective truth, not by liberal agitprop as Hollywood would like.
However, liberals aren’t interested in truth. Remember that the film “Fair Game,” in which Sean Penn and Naomi Watts portrayed Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame as patriotic heroes slimed by a Republican president and his political war machine, was made long after all of the Wilson/Plame lies were exposed. And long after even the Washington Post, no bastion of right-wing conservatism, editorialized: “Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming – falsely, as it turned out – that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior [Bush] administration officials.”
As the Post concluded of Wilson: “It’s unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.”
Moreover, the film version of those known lies, repackaged as accurate history in “Fair Game,” was no isolated incident. Not by a long shot.
Back in 1995, acclaimed director Rob Reiner admitted that his movie “The American President” was essentially a pre-election valentine to Bill Clinton from a big-time FOB.
A few years later, actor Gary Oldman (one of the few outspoken conservatives in Hollywood) caused quite a stir when he accused the makers of the political drama “The Contender” of recutting the film to promote Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations.
And in 2008, in the midst of all the “hope and change” hysteria, George Clooney decided not to make “The Ides of March.” He said it was far too cynical a film to undertake as he and the rest of his liberal friends were basking in the glow of Obama.
Two years later, though, with Obama’s fortunes sinking and Republicans making historic gains in off-year elections, Clooney suddenly felt the time was sufficiently cynical for shooting to get under way.
Meanwhile, when George W. Bush was in office, Hollywood was busy cranking out a slew of anti-war films attacking America and its military heroes in an overt effort to undermine the War on Terror – not to mention producing a film that fantasized about President Bush’s assassination.
Such is the history of Hollywood when it comes to political campaigning. And, make no mistake, they are campaigning just as actively as Obama is right now.
It comes as little surprise that, within days of the premiere of “Game Change,” a pro-Obama campaign ad was released that targeted none other than the suddenly ever-present Mrs. Palin – who isn’t running for president, or any other office this year, and hasn’t even officially endorsed any of the GOP candidates yet!
Some might call this collusion. And, based upon Hollywood’s history, there would be lots of evidence to support the charge.
Tom Flannery writes for a newspaper in Pennsylvania. His opinion pieces have appeared in publications such as Newsday, the Los Angeles Times, MovieGuide and Christian Networks Journal. He has won the two $10,000 awards for opinion writing, the Eric Breindel Award for Outstanding Opinion Journalism from News Corp/The New York Post in 2000 and the first-place prize in the Amy Foundation Writing Awards in 2008. He has won eight Amy Awards in all, as well as a Keystone Award from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Association for his work. He is author of the book “1939: The Year in Movies,” and an essay he wrote on Hollywood was included in the book “The Culture-Wise Family” by Dr. Ted Baehr and Pat Boone.
